1 400 festive season road deaths – Gauteng only province to show increase in fatalities

There were more than 1 400 road fatalities recorded in South Africa during the festive season, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has confirmed.

This is a 13.9% decline in fatalities compared to the previous year where more than 1 600 road deaths were recorded.

Mbalula on Tuesday released the 2022 festive season road traffic statistics between 1 December 2022 and 11 January this year.

Festive season road stats

During the briefing, Mbalula said this year’s festive season was characterised by a sequence of long weekends that contributed to increased traffic on the roads across the country and as a result, 1 451 people lost their lives.

“We also recorded a 6,5% reduction of fatal crashes compared to the previous year when we recorded 1 295 fatal crashes compared to 1 211 this year,” he said.

The minister said statistics showed fatalities went down in all provinces, excluding Gauteng, which saw a 5.5% increase from 275 to 290.

Provinces that saw a decrease in fatalities:

• Western Cape saw the highest decrease of 36.7% recorded, from 207 fatalities in previous festive period to 131 in this period.
• Mpumalanga recorded a 23.8% decrease, from 189 fatalities to 144 in the same.
• Northern Cape recorded a 21.5% decrease, from 65 fatalities to 51.
• North West recorded an decrease of 21% moving from 119 fatalities to 94.
• Limpopo recorded a 20.8% decrease moving from 226 fatalities to 179.
• KwaZulu-Natal recorded a 12.7% decrease moving from 275 fatalities to 240.
• Eastern Cape recorded a 2.4% decrease moving from 210 fatalities to 205 in this period.
• Free State recorded the lowest of 1.7% decrease moving from 119 fatalities to 117.

The minister revealed that most fatalities were recorded between 15 to 21 and 22 to 28 December.

“Fatalities recorded over this period were 327 and 316 respectively,” Mbalula continued.

Mbalula pointed out that human factors was the main cause of road fatalities, accounting for 87% of all accidents.

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“These are followed by road and environmental factors at 8%, with vehicle factors at 5%. When crashes occur there is more than one factor at play.”

Most crashes, the minister said, occurred between 5pm and 10pm particularly during the weekend.

Furthermore, most fatal crashes involved light motor vehicles, followed by light delivery vehicles, minibuses and trucks, with the following statistics being recorded:

• Light motor vehicles contributed 39% to the total fatal crashes.
• Light delivery vehicles at 16%.
• Minibus vehicles contributed 7%.
• Trucks accounted for 4%.

Driver, pedestrian fatalities

Mbalula also said pedestrian fatalities remained a major source of concern which has increased by 10%.

Pedestrian fatalities in the previous period was 31%, compared to 41% in the current festive season.

“Simply put out of every 100 road crash fatalities, 41 are pedestrians. In Gauteng and Western Cape, pedestrian fatalities constitute 54% of all fatalities, implying that for every 100 people that died from a road crash, 54 were pedestrians,” the minister added.

Passenger fatalities, however, saw a 7% decline, with 31% recorded in the current period, compared to 38% in the previous festive season.

“We have seen unbuckled children and adults alike being flown out of cars resulting in serious injuries and deaths that could have been prevented.”

Meanwhile, driver and cyclist fatalities declined by 1% and 3% respectively.  

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